When I hear the phrase, “X-Men: First Class”, I think of the original X-Men team.
Professor X, Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, and Jean Grey.
Not this rubbish;
Looks like fun, right?
From what I can surmise from the trailer, the movie takes place in October 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis (there’s a day by day timeline here.).
On October 22 at 7:00 pm, President Kennedy delivered a nation-wide televised address on all of the major networks announcing the discovery of the missiles.
It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union
So, there’s the plot.
First of all, the movie doesn’t look like it was set in the 1960s. It looks like 2011.
Whatever.
Nothing about this film makes any sense.
Especially the age of the characters. The cast is a anachronistic mish-mash. Some of them shouldn’t be in this timeline simple. Some wouldn’t be born until decades later.
"Not even my incredible mind can make sense of this awful plot!"
Here’s the cast of characters;
- Charles Xavier
- Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto
- Hank McCoy / Beast
- Dr. Moira MacTaggert
- Sean Cassidy aka Banshee
- Sebastian Shaw
- Emma Frost
- Raven Darkholme aka Mystique
- Azazel (Nightcrawer’s dad)
- Armando Muñoz aka Darwin
- Alex Summers aka Havok
- Janos Quested aka Riptide
- Angel Salvadore aka Tempest
Let’s break this down bit by bit.
Charles Xavier and Magneto are perfectly suited to be the center of any X-Men story of this time period. Chuck and Erik were still friend, but I must demand the Xavier become a paraplegic by Erik’s hands by the end of this film.
- “We’re going to be doing one thing, and one thing only. Killing Nazis”… Wait, wrong movie.
Beast is also perfectly acceptable in a film about the formation of the X-Men. My problem is that he is the only original team member in this movie.
By the way, the X-Men didn’t have the X-Jet at this point. So why is it in the film? The real-world SR-71 was still in development.
- They’ve been using the same plane since 1962!
Moira MacTaggert is a good character for this film, since she was Xavier’s early love-interest. The silent partner in the founding of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters and co-creator of Cerebro. However, in the film she’s a CIA liaison (WTF!) to the team. However, with the addition of Banshee, her stable love interest after Chuck and Mr. MacTaggert, things could be complicated. Both characters are the correct age for the film, but Banshee is shown as a kid. An American kid.
Sebastian Shaw and his Hellfire Club a bit weird to have in this movie (The Club, and its members, were introduced in 1980). Regardless, he’s an ageless villain. I would like point out, however, that Emma Frost would be a child in 1962. The recent Wolverine movie, Emma was shown to be a young teen in 1979. Geez….
- Apparently, the White Queen has always been 35.
The addition of Mystique is fine (she would already be rather old in 1962). However, she’s a villain. (Same for Azazel.)
Darwin is a pointless new character (he was introduced in February 2006). He’s one of Moira MacTaggert ’foster’ mutants and was created for a few plot lines that consists of him being super-loyal to Xavier.
Suddenly Darwin is just 'the Token Black guy', not half-African, half-Latino.
Havok is the younger brother of Cyclops. So, the writers decided it was a bad idea to have Cyclops in this movie, but a good idea to have his little brother. But according to executive producer for the movie Bryan Singer, Havok will not be portrayed as Cyclops’ brother in the film. So, my question is why didn’t they just use Cyclops!
- Thanks to ‘Twilight’, Havok tests better with female audiences.
Riptide is a villainous character who works for Mr. Sinister’s Marauders. Without appearing with the rest of the Marauders, and explaining the Gambit/Mr. Sinister plot line decades before it happens.
Tempest aka Housefly Girl with an Afro (She’s called Angel in this film) was a 14-year-old when her character was introduced in 2001. So, she is certain too young to shown as a teen/young woman in 1962.
- Getting rid of Angel’s afro and dark skin made her SOOO 1960′s!
Conclusion:
Ultimately I don’t understand why these X-Men movie directors and writers are continuing to ignore 40+ years of source material. In all the X-Men movies so far, they’ve mad up non-sensible stories with most of the characters out of there original context.
